Webcast Thoughts?!?

[High Iron]

I just read through 19 pages of this BS! Seigel could raise the dead and this crowd would still have something negative to say about it!!!!!!!!!!!!

EOM

What was postive?...That is, other than raising said dead.

 

[700UW]

I guess you eat crow again. It's all over the news how they are adding more flights. Do you need proof?

Do the Math!

Dave filmed the video Wednesday morning, Southwest did not announce thier increase of flights till Thursday at 1:00PM.

Southwest Airlines Announces More Flights for Philadelphia; Aggressive Expansion Planned This Summer
1:00 pm - PR Newswire

Do the math, over 24 hours later WN did not release the information to the press.

So there is no crow to eat as I was correct.

 

[700UW]

700 havent heard from you about you being dead wrong? Still waiting !!!!!

usfliboi,

Read the above post!

 

[GadgetFreak]

Hearing the arguments about timelines on the press release from Southwest sort of reminds me of the expression about "rearranging the deck chairs on the Titantic". It really isnt a major issue. That said, I might as well rearrange some chairs myself. Having some limited experience with press releases like that from Southwest, I know that they often are given to news outlets one or even several days in advance. When this is done they have a "embargo" placed on them until a certain time when the information can be released. Since this info was in the media the following day it is quite likely (although I have no specific knowledge of this case) that this information was released to the media at the time Dave gave the speech. Basically, Dave broke the embargo for the release. Big deal. You can dissect the precise wording, but he knew this was being announced, possibly even thought it had been announced because it was already with the press. Calling him a liar based on this seems a bit over the top. Saying he is a lousy leader, well, Im not arguing with that.......

 

[PITMTC]

Well 700,
Either Dave knew that SW was adding more flights or SW decided to add more flight based on Daves idea. I doubt the second choice is correct.

Non the less, I don't believe I have ever read you admit you were ever wrong.

And what's with that silly picture that makes no sense?

 

[funguy2]

Videoconferencing is getting a lot better and will continue to do so. As the hassles and fear of flying build more and more is getting done on the computer of on the phone. There wont be a white knight.

GadgetFreak:

You know, as I read your post, something struck me. Even though US Airways is in a heap of trouble, one of the things that all airlines can market together is the effect of "being there". Whether its a salesman calling on a client, kids visiting grandma, or a CEO rallying the troops (hint, hint), the act of being there in person will always send a clear message of "this is important to me" vs. a conference call, video conference, or phone call.

I think Dave really missed this. While I understand he is a busy guy, and maybe he is afraid of the face-to-face meetings with employees at this point, but the guy runs an AIRLINE. He doesn't need to be pointing out and using the benefits of using a competing service ("video conferencing"). He should have done another round of road shows... Or at least a few roadshows at DCA (his employees w/ flight benefits could fly to him), where more than 75 maybe hand-picked people could attend. Something like a few "shows" in a 2000-4000 seat auditorium is more along the lines of what he should have done... Just my opinion.

You can dissect the precise wording, but he knew this was being announced, possibly even thought it had been announced because it was already with the press. Calling him a liar based on this seems a bit over the top. Saying he is a lousy leader, well, Im not arguing with that.......

I couldn't agree more.

 

[bobcat]

My question is ... "What makes anyone think that US is going to survive?" Is anyone really looking to the future. What makes anyone think that more consessions are going to keep us in business for any length of time?

Dave talked of not putting a band-aid on the problem this time. Well, that is exactly what he is trying to do again. He is trying to get some quick cash which, no matter what we give will never be enough. This is because there is no plan and there never was. He has no clue of how to run an airline let alone fix an airline that has been taking a nose dive for many many years.

We already gave over a billion dollars to him to just squander away. Over the last 2 1/2 years he should have been fixing our problems and putting our money into turning around the company. Well, he didn't! We gave twice and now we are in worse shape than we were before. Where did all that money go why was nothing changed???

To all of those people out there who are willing to throw away more of their hard earned money....why do you think more consessions are justified? Do you really think that if you give up more of your hard earned money that miraculously "this time" the company is going to do a complete 360 and all of a sudden become profitable...with our current management, with our history, with the state of the world and of course, don't forget, with SW coming to crush us. We are taking the exact path that the now defunct airlines have taken and it is proof that it doesn't work. It may give you a few more months on the job but, the end result will probably be the same. I just do not see what reasoning there is behind the "we've gotta give what it takes". We can all give up half of our pay and it still will not be enough to save US. It's probably too late. Dave has been putting a band-aid on the problem for too long and he still is planning to use that same old box of band-aids at our expense.

 

[bobcat]

and further more...

Why would most want to give more in consessions when most of us if not all of us won't be around much longer anyway if we are still in operation for the next year. Dave's only plan so far is to get rid of the heart of the company which are the employees.

1. Reservation agents can kiss their jobs good bye. Dave said that we will be implementing a new and improved website and really pushing online bookings and the fare structure is going to be simplified (we've been hearing this for 2 years) so there would no longer be a need for as many agents. What he didn't discuss was the outsourcing overseas which has been rumored to be in the works. There is no future for Res.

2. Mechanics - Major outsourcing if not all.

3. Kiosks - More kiosks less ATO agents. They're all getting sent out to pasture which means sent to Res.

4. Gate Readers - Less gate agents

5. Catering - outsourced

6. Electronic Baggage - outsourced

7. Flight Attendants - Midatlantic and lay offs

8. Pilots - Midatlantic

I really think that Res. has finally seen the writing on the wall and have had enough. Most that I have heard are with the "full pay to the last day" group and it will really be a surprise if a "yes" vote would go through. We really have nothing to lose. There is probably not much of a future for this dept. and others, most see that now. Even when Dave was asked by an audience member why we should give again after we gave twice with no result and what reassurance he could give that it would be worth it and he could give no reassurance. His response was that he could not see into the future. What a pep talk, huh? 380? I don't think so.

 

[funguy2]

SWA makes plans and floats rumors of additional PHL flights. may even load them into the system.

Herd and the SWA brain trust watch the vwebcast and judge how well it went and assessed the information and based on there read of Siegel and his percieved level of enthusiasm and reacted based on what they saw.

So what?

Even if this is what happened, LUV can back it up. They have lots of aircraft and lots of resources. They can reshuffle new service priorities (i.e. RIC).

This isn't TWA saying "we will build an SJU focus city" and then add a handful of flights. This is Southwest, which has a demonstrated ability to enter a market and change it radically. It has announced its intention to do so in PHL. Can this all be a big trick just to scare US Airways? I suppose. If you were the CEO would you make that bet? Not me.

 

[BoeingBoy]

Ok, maybe we can put this "who announced what when" thing to rest. From Aviation Daily 3/25/04:

"Siegel also stole Southwest’s thunder by revealing the carrier’s plans to further boost capacity from Philadelphia. Early in the day, Southwest filed with OAG its July schedule that includes one new flight from Philadelphia to West Palm Beach, one service to Fort Lauderdale, one to Houston Hobby, four to Manchester, N.H., four to Raleigh-Durham, one to Los Angeles and one to New Orleans. After Siegel’s broadcast, a Southwest spokesman said that Southwest had no announcement on new routes but Kelleher is planning a press event in Philadelphia today."

In short, Dave knew of the added flights, but Southwest hadn't officially announced them yet. When he said that they had been "announced", he was not technically correct, but that is semantics.

And no, Southwest didn't decide to announce the flights just because Dave said they had - for them to do anything because of Dave says so is beyond insane.

Jim

 

[Winglet]

If you quit your job at U, there's no unemployement insurance. If you're layed off, there is. Like Dave said, getting another job while you already have one, is best. Otherwise, given the deep stall Dave's got the company in, and if you can't find a new job, "full pay to the last day" makes a lot of economic sense if you think the company is going to fail or you're one of the ones who's going to get the ax early.

No happy choices. Dave doesn't have a plan and he doesn't have any time to implement it successfully even if he did. The company "transfomation" had to start full-steam ahead over a year ago to have any chance of success. IMHO, for him to stand up and tell everyone that he can turn U into a 6 cent airline is laughable. 2 cents from cost saving? Why was'nt that implemented a year ago? 2 cents from employees? His employee model is more like Ryan or Spirit. Fluctuating, at will, very low pay workforces.

 

[US2]

FFs need to relax ... No one said anything about definitely eliminating F. They are looking at it as an option to see if it would make sense, and that is something they should absolutely be doing. My guess is it will prove to not make sense given Airtran, ATA, America West all have F cabins. That being said, the days of 26 seat A321s are probably coming to an end. Every plane should just have 8-12 F seats and be done with it. Also, the days of calling it First are probably coming to an end ... I see them rebranding it as basically a nicer version of E+ with a new brand name (ticketed as a business-class seat).

Cutting F to 8-12 seats is just as bad as eliminating it, since US3s and US2s will have a hard time upgrading on the long haul routes. You'll see a lot of people bail. For insight on this issue, check out the flyertalk board comments concerning the new 757 configuration.

The fact is that US has a substandard F product anyway, a shadow of what it once was, when a transcon F flight on US was something to look forward to. And, I can discern no appreciable difference, apart from assigned seating, between US Y and Southwest, other than I can hop a Southwest flight at the last minute for considerably less than US.

In any case, even mentioning the possibility of eliminating F makes people want to reassess whether they want to put all their eggs in the US basket.

 

[harleyrider]

:angry: For those of you that are arguing about hand picked or not hand picked employees : Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Friday March 26. 2004, Business Section first page by, Michael Yoemans, Seventh paragragh, Siegel's warning camein the presentationto about 75 HANDPICKED employees near the Arlington, Va. ect, ect..............I think, handpicked means, those who are more than willing to drink some more of Dave's Kool-Aide. OPEN WIDE TAKE A BIG GULP!!!

 

[crazyincanton]

The discrepancy that I see with Dave's presentation was him lowering operational costs by 2 cents a mile. If he can pull that rabbit out of the hat, why hasn't it been done already? He has control over that. This would show us that he's trying to do something. The labor issue will take longer just due to the fact of negotiations, voting,etc. Why not start where you can first and then proceed with the rest. I really feel that he has no idea where to begin, except with the employees again.





HERE'S THE PLAN!
WHERE'S THE BEEF?

 

[FlyingHippie]

After watching this presentation by Siegel, god help us all. Talk about slow and dimwitted.